Safari Kid, founded in Silicon Valley in 2005, offers one of the best preschool and nursery programs for children.

With humble beginnings, we now have more than 3000 children in our centres, with locations in the United States, Canada, India, Hong Kong and Malaysia. Safari Kid's early childhood education programs are customized for the learning curve of each child and develop critical cognitive, social, emotional, physical, creative and reasoning skills in children below the age of seven years. Safari Kids are generally one or two grade levels ahead of their peers when they enter primary school, and stand out as leaders and problem solvers in any group.

Recent Articles

A recent article in the New York Times says what we've known for several years - NOT teaching challenging Math at kindergarten level is detrimental to children. Most children are taught counting numb...

In the past few days, there have been three articles in the British press about the opening of our new nursery in London, all of them referring to us as a 'nursery for tiger mums.'
While I’m pleasan...

Sir Ken Robinson's "Do Schools Kill Creativity?" is the most watched TED talk of all time. In this engaging and funny talk, he talks about the importance of fostering creativity through the learning ...

Leadership Team

Aniruddh Gupta

Managing Director, Safari Kid Asia

Aniruddh is an investor, promoter and entrepreneur. He is the Founder and Managing Director of DML Education Pte. Ltd, which runs the Safari Kid preschools and kindergartens in Asia and the Middle East. Aniruddh was a career investment banker till 2012, when the birth of his second child led him to re-evaluate his priorities and to take a break from work. His search for the ideal preschool for his (then) two and a half year daughter led him to Safari Kid in California, and he decided to bring the program to Asia. He has worked in London, New York and Asia with Deutsche Bank, UBS, Goldman Sachs and Standard Chartered Bank for fourteen years in various roles, including global and regional roles in the final six years of his career. Aniruddh is an avid hiker, and does one Himalayan trek every year. He has also completed the Oxfam Trailwalker in Hong Kong on multiple occasions. He divides his time between Hong Kong and Singapore. Aniruddh is a Bachelor of Technology from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata.

Pallavi Nirula Nath

Chief Operating Officer, Safari Kid Asia

Pallavi is a yield management expert by education. Her business family background ingrained in her the fundamentals of running an enterprise from a very early age. She was amongst the first few proponents of Revenue Management in the Asian Hospitality industry and has served on the Executive Committee of leading hotel chains in Singapore and has overseen regional businesses for global hotel management companies. She has always been passionate about education and learning. This led her to create a hospitality best practices implementation and education system and consultancy in 2007. She is the COO of Safari Kid Asia, the Asia franchise of Safari Kid – a California based international pre-school chain and founder of Revmax Consultancy, a revenue management and elearning system and content consulting firm. She is a member of Cayuga hospitality consultants and the Vice President of HSMAI South Asia. Pallavi holds a bachelors degree in Economics from St Stephen's college and an MMH (Hospitality MBA) from Cornell University. She is a Black Belt Shodan in Karate and is currently based in Singapore.

Shy Mudakavi

Founder, President & CEO, Safari Kid Inc.

Shy (Miss Shy to all our kids and teachers) has been involved in the education sector since her college days in Mumbai. After moving to California in 1999, she maintained relentless focus in educating of children - as a math tutor, swimming instructor, dance instructor and fashion show coordinator. She later founded Safari Kid for pre-school and after-school students in a modest location in Newark with 5 children. Since then, through sheer energy, will power and leadership she grew this to 17 locations in the Bay area alone, and has now taken the franchise global, maintaining the highest standards for the program. Through all this growth, Ms. Shy has been like a best friend to all her teachers/directors and her kids. Ms. Shy is also active in local community service through her non-profit organization. Shy has a Bachelor of Commerce as well as a LLB (Law Bachelor) from India.

Karen Kelly

Head of Early Years Curriculum and Training, Safari Kid International

Karen has over 20 years of experience in early childhood and special needs education in the UK, and joins us from Bebegarten in Hong Kong, where she spent her first year in Hong Kong as a senior early childhood teacher and the Special Education Needs Coordinator. Karen has been an Area Special Education Needs Coordinator to the Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council for seven years, and has managed and taught in nurseries in the UK for several years. Karen brings to Safari Kid her vast teaching and management experience, commitment to excellence and prized skills in the field of special education needs. Karen has a Diploma in Nursery Nursing Examination Board and a BA in Early Childhood Studies from the University of Leeds, and intends to do a PhD in Early Childhood Development at some point when time permits.